3DO was originally going to release Acromage as a separate game. This was during the popularity of Magic and Pokemon. But they backed off of those plans and just threw it into M&M7. However a few years later and they did release Acromage as a separte game. But I was only able to find it digitally at the 3DO site. Thus when 3DO went down I was unable to get the activation codes.

I guess for 3 bucks I could go a head and get M&M 7 and just play the game
in one of the Taverns - And I guess saving the game near a tavern could reduce the load times - Let me ponder this . . . .

Originally Posted by Dajjer
Okay Harlequin, now that you did your blog duty - just go ahead and Cut&Paste your list here. :-)

BTW, I too feel a little guilty about putting not only Skyrim but Fallout Vegas on any revised top ten by me. But sometimes when you're playing a game your realize at the very time you're playing the game that it's a great game. It happened to me with Might & Magic 6, No One Lives Forever, X-Com, Fallout Vegas and now Skyrim.

I did 2 pages back, I simply expanded the reasons for said list in my blog. But the basic list s the same.

Someone mentioned Starflight and that was a very good sci-fi CRPG in it's day. A huge amount of stats, exploring and choices to be had. If I did a top #15 list both that and Bard's Tale would have found their way on the list.

I feel quite justified in including NV and Skyrim on my list. Both very different reasons however. NV is a high bar of writing, story and choices in the main plot. Skyrim is the ultimate sandbox CRPG, just like a PnP RPG. Where you can pretty much go and do anything and become whoever you want. Near total freedom.

Originally Posted by GothicGothicness
Glad to see this game on here, fantastic game… there is remake out for the PSP.

Another fantastic game, glad to see it as well on the list.

Word. If I ever get a PSP I will definitely pick up the remake. Tactics Ogre was badass. There was a large amount of joinable party members which is always cool. And depending on your actions, certain ones would or wouldn't join, and from what I understand the story was completely different based on which choices you made. Very innovative. Just a badass game.

Chrono was the first game I ever racked up over $20 worth of late fees with as a child. And $20 at the time was big money, especially when it cost $3 to rent a game for like 3 days. I kept it overdue for a month and racked up that bill. My mom paid it and actually wasn't too pissed off at me. I used to get up earlier in the morning and play it before I went to school too. I loved that game. I just couldn't get enough of it.

Cool. RAW was a genius. My favorite books of his are Cosmic Trigger and Prometheus Rising, but I have pretty much every book he's ever written, and I have never found one that I didn't enjoy immensely.

-Neverwinter Nights: NOT for its lacklustre campaign but the awesome editor and countless great modules it spawned

"dream" RPG(s):

party-based:

a new game like RoA in terms of gameplay except this time around with a more interesting setting (something morrowindy rather than generic fantasy) and obviously better graphics (could be very well 2D though - would still work great for this type of game). add an easy to use NWN-like toolset for perfection.

1. Ultima IV: Quest of the Avatar - Like some others have posted, the one that got me into RPGs. Back in the day I remember keeping a journal throughout, I was so engrossed. Combine that with a unique plotline and characters I actually gave a damn about (Iolo! Dupre!) and you have a true classic.

2. Ultima VI: The False Prophet - Definitely a soft spot for this one. I remember it being quite a technological jump from Ultimas I-V (though not as much as VII), but I was completely caught up in the story.

3. Fallout - I found Fallout 2 something of a disappointment compared with this, though it could just be I have fonder memories of playing this one. As others have mentioned, it made you feel that your actions truly had consequences. And I fondly recall a playthrough were I butchered every person I came across. Success!

4. Baldur's Gate 1 and 2 - Tough but more rewarding than virtually any other CRPG out there (I haven't played Planescape Torment yet, much to my embarrassment).

5. Vampire the Masquerade: Bloodlines - Am digging all the love for this underrated gem. Compulsively replayable and genuinely gripping, with a fantastic atmosphere. Writing this, I'm tempted to reinstall and play it again.

6. Deus Ex - Though I almost always opt for a sniper/shooter character, the number of ways you can complete most missions is always an eye-opener. I've heard Human Revolutions is pretty good too, certainly better than Deus Ex 2, but this would be hard to top.

7. System Shock 2 - Probably the most terrifying gaming experience of my life and Shodan is one of gaming's best villains.

8. Ultima Underworld 1 & 2 - Truly innovative for their time, they were two of the most addictive dungeon crawlers I can remember (though the Eye of the Beholder and Lands of Lore games were great, too).

9. Dungeon Master I and II - I still remember these fondly from my Amiga days, whittling away countless hours.

10. Fallout 3 - Far better than I could have expected by moving the Fallout franchise into three dimensions. Still playing this and its DLC to death.

Originally Posted by Relayer
OH no you didn't!!!! More like severly underrated!!!

But I'll forgive you for being a Kurosawa fan though and having a cool avatar.

Thanks. I just finished DD the other day and although I liked it, I don't quite get the overwhelming love for it. Perhaps it was because I played as an archer and found many parts of the game frustratingly difficult.

Originally Posted by Relayer
OH no you didn't!!!! More like severly underrated!!!

Originally Posted by Kurosawa-Fan
Thanks. I just finished DD the other day and although I liked it, I don't quite get the overwhelming love for it. Perhaps it was because I played as an archer and found many parts of the game frustratingly difficult.

I'm more upset about him saying The Witcher was overrated.

I did my first full playthrough of Divine Divinity last year, and I really enjoyed it for the most part. I thought the earlier stages of the game were much, much better than the later stages though, and the game was too long. That final area was a real drag, and it brought my overall opinion of the game down a bit. DD might have been in my top ten if not for that last 20%.

I played Beyond Divinity (the sequel), which I absolutely hated so I was skeptical about Divine Divinity but I heard good things about it, particularly the humour and original quests. So I decided to see what I had missed and got it through GOG and played it recently.

It is indeed true that it has humour and witty dialogues, which is not too common, and some interesting quests and I enjoyed these aspects of the game. But apart from that, it is way too much of a hack and slash festival and I really dislike that type of games.

I knew beforehand that it was combat heavy so I played it on easy to just click my way through battles and focus on the quests. I played as a pure mage and I realised early on that I had crippled my character through unfortunate levelling choices making the game quite difficult in certain parts (Many foes had elemental resistances making my spells useless). Later, the game became easier due to two well chosen skills but the two Josephina boss battle were absolutely ridiculous, even on easy. Her hell spikes would literally kill me in 1 second. The only way I could win was to spam health potions during the hell spikes, run 2 cm away, cast invisibility, and then approach her and cast the spiralling discs as they do not seem to be affected by elemental resistances. But even so, this tactic would be too dependent on timing and luck so I had to reload many many times. (If I didn't have the invisibility spell she would have been impossible to kill with my character build).

After the ritual at the council, the game goes downhill and IMO becomes a worthless hack'n slasher. I just cast invisibility and ran towards the objectives and saw that I was running literally through hundreds and hundreds and hundreds of enemies. The mere thought of having to fight my way through all those enemies made me shudder.

Originally Posted by Harlequin
M&M didn't offer anything new or ground breaking from what I recall. Not saying they were not good, but a top 10 list should break new ground or do what those before it did at a high level. M&M was a good and enjoyable series but not overly note worthy IMO.

Don't think I played Wiz8 so…

You think NWN 2, IWD and Dragon Age Origins are groundbreaking but not M & M?
That's nuts. There's nothing in any of those games that haven't been done before.

Sure, the origins in DA were nice but these didn't make the game. What was great about DA:O was that it was somewhat of a return to the Baldur's Gate games of old after Bioware's KOTOR, Jade Empire and ME games.

IWD was a modern (at the time) gold box game. Basically Baldur's Gate with emphasis on combat instead of story/characters.

NWN 2 was more of the above.

And I loved IWD and DA:O so not that I have anything against those two (IWD is in my top 10, underrated).

I only played the M & M games in the last couple of years and only recently really got into M & M 4 but from my knowledge of games of that era (I've been gaming since the early 80s) M & M would have been groundbreaking for it's non-linear format COMBINED with it's humongous environments.

The later games also allowed you to switch from TB to real time if I'm not mistaken.

How about being able to combine M & M IV and V into a single game (World Of Xeen)? That was different. Still is. Would be amazing to combine Morrowind, Oblivion and Skyrim.

Originally Posted by JDR13
I thought the earlier stages of the game were much, much better than the later stages though, and the game was too long. That final area was a real drag, and it brought my overall opinion of the game down a bit. DD might have been in my top ten if not for that last 20%.

Originally Posted by Asdraguuhl
After the ritual at the council, the game goes downhill and IMO becomes a worthless hack'n slasher. I just cast invisibility and ran towards the objectives and saw that I was running literally through hundreds and hundreds and hundreds of enemies. The mere thought of having to fight my way through all those enemies made me shudder.

My verdict: 20% good and 80% bad.

No argument here - I agree, game goes downhill towards the end.

Still, like KOTOR2, before that point it's a great game. I loved that the world was pretty cohesive - you had an invasion and saw signs of it everywhere. Some of the quests were creative and there were a ton of them everywhere. And I loved that the world was huge and you could pretty much go anywhere. I also loved that it didn't take itself seriously. Music was also great.

So yeah, I think 80% is a fair score - what I take issue with and why I say it's underrated is that most people dismiss it as a Diablo clone and the combat is similar but it has more in common with Baldur's Gate or an Ultima than Diablo.